Multiphotographic device

ABSTRACT

A multiphotographic device comprising a photographic lens consisting of a group of a multitude of microlenses arrayed integrally in one plane in columns and rows; and an opaque moving plate disposed between the photographic lens and a photosensitive material which is disposed backwardly of the moving plate, and having a plurality of equidistantly spaced apart apertures.

United States Patent lnventors Appl. No. Filed Patented AssigneePriority Hisanori Ataka; Nobunao Mikami, both of Kawasaki-shl, JapanNov. 4, 1968 Oct. 12, 1971 Kabushiki Kaisha Ricoh Tokyo, Japan Nov. 8,1967 Japan MULTIPHOTOGRAPHIC DEVICE 1 Claim, 4 Drawing Figs.

US. Cl 95/18 R, 95/36 R, 352/46, 352/58, 352/81 1nt.Cl E01c 11/10 Fieldof Search; 95/18, 18 D, 36; 352/46, 53, 58, 81

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 11/1930 Huebner 95/36 1,875,2448/1932 Keen 95/36 X 2,661,651 12/1953 Stiper 352/58 2,943,533 7/1960Goodbar 95/18 P UX 3,099,195 7/1963 Goodbar 95/18 P X 3,291,555 12/1966Browning 95/18 P X FOREIGN PATENTS 633,689 2/1928 France 95/18 P 421,12012/1934 Great Britain.... 352/81 412,535 1/1946 ltaly 352/81 PrimaryExaminer--Samuel S. Matthews Assistant ExaminerMonroe H. HayesAttorney-Burgess, Ryan and Hicks ABSTRACT: A multiphotographic devicecomprising a photographic lens consisting of a group of a multitude ofmicrolenses arrayed integrally in one plane in columns and rows; and anopaque moving plate disposed between the photographic lens and aphotosensitive material which is disposed backwardly of the movingplate, and having a plurality of equidistantly spaced apart apertures.

mamenumzm 3311.899

FIG.3

h. 4 lllllmuu MULTIPHOTOGRAPHIC DEVICE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Thepresent invention relates to a multiphotographic device and moreparticularly a multiphotographic device of the type wherein an image ofone subject is finely split so as to be recorded upon a photosensitivematerial as a multitude of finely split and distributed images; an imageof another subject is recorded in the same manner as described aboveexcept that these finely split distributed images of said image of saidanother subject may not be overlapped upon said first mentioned finelysplit distributed images upon said photosensitive material; an image ofa still another subject is recorded as finely split distributed imagesupon the photosensitive material as described above; and so on.

Generally, the conventional multiphotographic device is constituted of afirst lens to be directed toward a subject to be photographed, a secondlens consisting of a multitude of *inicrolenses and an aperture disposedin the vicinity of or within said first lens. Therefore, themultiphotographic device is large in size in view of the arrangement ofsaid lenses. Furthermore, the multiphotographic device of the typedescribed has a tendency of becoming increasingly larger in size becauseonly one aperture is normally utilized so as to displace this aperturefrom one position to another so that the range in which the aperture isdisplaced becomes larger,

becomes complicated in structure and large in size.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION One of the novel features which are believed tobe characteristic of the present invention both as to its structure andmode of operation resides in the fact that the multiphotographic deviceof the present invention comprises a photographic lens consisting of agroup of a multitude of microlenses arrayed integrally in one plane incolumns and rows, and apertures equidistantly spaced apart from eachother and disposed backwardly of said photographic lens so that each ofsaid apertures focuses only one portion of a plurality of images ofsubjects upon a photosensitive material, whereby images which are finelysplit by said apertures are successively recorded upon saidphotosensitive material by displacing said apertures from one positionto another whenever photographed.

According to the present invention, said microlens group serves as anobjective so that an additional photographic lens is not required,whereby the photographic device of the present invention can be madecompact in size and light in weight with less production cost.

According to the present invention, the range of the displacement of oneaperture is within a size of one microlens at the most, means fordisplacing the apertures can be also made compact in size and light inweight.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent from the following description of a preferred embodimentthereof, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side view illustrating onlythe essential parts of a multiphotographic device according to thepresent invention;

FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B are explanatory views each illustrating finely splitimages recorded upon photosensitive material; and

FIG. 3 is a front view illustrating a microlens group as well as movingapertures.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The present invention will bedescribed hereinafter in more detail with reference to the accompanyingdrawing wherein reference numeral 1 designates a photographic lensconsisting of a group of microlenses which are arrayed integrally in oneplane in columns and rows; 2, a photosensitive material disposedbackwardly of the photographic lens; and 3, an opaque moving apertureplate in which are arrayed in columns and rows equidistantly spacedapertures 4, each being in the form of a square.

When the photographic lens 1 is directed toward a subject A to bephotographed, images Aa whose number is equal to a number of microlensesconstituting the photographic lens I are focused upon the photosensitivematerial 2. However, since the moving aperture plate 3 having aplurality of apertures 4 is disposed forwardly of the photosensitivematerial 2, only the images passing through the aforementioned aperturesare permitted to focus upon the photosensitive material 2. This will bedescribed in more detail with reference to FIG. I. The uppermostaperture of the moving plate 3 restricts the light beam or ray so thatonly one portion A of the subject A is focused upon the photosensitivematerial 2 as a miniature finely split image a corresponding to theaforementioned portion A of the subject A. In the same manner asdescribed above, the third aperture from the top of the moving plate 3serves only to focus the portion A of the subject A upon thephotosensitive material 2 as a tiny finely split image a In the similarmanner as described hereinabove, the remaining apertures serve to focusthe images of portions A,, A and A upon the portions of thephotosensitive material corresponding to respective apertures.

As described hereinabove, one subject is distributed over the surface ofthe photosensitive material 2 as finely split images so that itisimpossible to recognize what is recorded upon the photosensitivematerial. The images can be projected upon a screen as one reproducedimage, after the photosensitive material bearing these images has beenprocessed, by illuminating thus processed images for projection in theprojection optical system which is identical to the multiphotographicdevice used for recording these images except that the lights forprojection travel along the paths opposite in direction to those whenphotographed.

After having photographed the first subject A as described above, themoving plate 3 is displaced downwardly from the position shown in FIG. Itoward the position shown in FIG. 2A in such a manner that each of theapertures is disposed in opposition to a portion of the photosensitivematerial which has not yet been exposed. Thereafter, the photographiclens I is directed toward the second subject B to be photographed, theneach portion 3,, 8,, B and so on of this subject B is recorded upon thephotosensitive material 2 as finely split image h h b and so on. Whenthe position of the moving aperture plate 3 is further displaced fromthe position as shown in FIG. 2B and the photographic lens is directedto the third subject C, then each portion of the subject C is recordedupon the photosensitive material 2 as finely split image c c c and so onas in the cases of the subjects A and B.

Overlapping of the finely split images is to be avoided when the movingplate is displaced from one position to another. The number of subjectsto be recorded on a single photosensitive material is determined by thenumbers of steps in vertical and horizontal directions of the apertureplate 3 to be displaced in such a manner as described above. Forexample, when the aperture is displaced in seven steps in each of thevertical and horizontal directions, then the total of 49 pictures can berecorded upon a single photosensitive material.

Now referring to FIG. 1 again, the subject A to be recorded is notlimited to an object or scene, but may be an image formed by anotherlens disposed forwardly of the photographic lens 1 between these lenses.The shutter which is used for photographing may be disposed in thevicinity of the aforementioned other lens when this lens is disposedadditionally or may be disposed in the vicinity of the photographic lens1 or immediately before the moving aperture plate 3 when theaforementioned lens is not utilized.

The present invention has been described with a particular reference toone preferred embodiment thereof, but it will be understood thatvariations and modifications can be effected without departing thespirit of the present invention as described hereinabove and as definedin the appended claim.

l. Multiphotqgraphic devices for recording a complete image of an objectin a plurality of split images on photosensitive material comprising:

an integral lens group of microlenses arrayed in rows and columns in asingle plane, each said microlens having predetermined vertical andhorizontal size dimensions; the photosensitive material spaced from saidlens group on the side opposite to the object; an aperture platepositioned closely adjacent said photosensitive material between saidphotosensitive material and said lens group; said aperture plate havinga plurality of apertures formed therein, said apertures beingequidistantly spaced from each other and arrayed in columns and rowscorresponding to the array of the lenses in said lens group;

each said aperture formed as a square and of a size to focus one of saidsplit images on a portion of said photosensitive material;

said aperture plate positioned to be vertically and horizontally movablewith respect to said lens group and said photosensitive material, saidaperture plate being sequentially movable in incremental steps, and saidapertures thereupon focusing different split images at each said step onportions of said photosensitive material spaced from previously focusedsplit images; and

said aperture plate having limited vertical and horizontal movement suchthat the range of movement of an individual aperture is less than saidsize dimensions of an individual microlens.

